Covered in Threadmalaka’s adventure in sewing

I seriously put “Stop! Quilting time!” as the subject of this post but I was too embarrassed to leave it, but also cracking up so I had to put it somewhere.

It’s been forever since I sewed anything.  Ok, not forever - but at least a few weeks.  I fixed the strap on the purse I made for my MIL, but that’s about it!  I realized that my chi was all wacky upstairs.  To remedy that, I cleaned everything up (my oh my how messy it gets) and we got rid of the giant tube TV and the armoire it sat in..  It’s SO much better, I’m excited about getting back to my beloved hobby!

On Superbowl Sunday, the quilting store was offering a “quarter back” on all purchases, so I bought a pattern and lots of fabric to make a full-sized quilt.  I’ve never made anything bigger than a throw or lap-sized, so this will be an experiment.  The real reason I bought it, aside from the 25% off, was that Richard’s mom wants to quilt but she gets so overwhelmed by making the right selection that she gives up.  I get overwhelmed with the amount of work it takes to make a big quilt.  This solves both problems - I picked everything out and took it over there and we divvied it up, and we’re going to do it together.

It took me nearly an hour in the quilt store to pick something out - and I wasn’t even trying to coordinate it myself.  I was 99% sure I wanted to use a jelly roll, but finding something I loved AND that I thought my MIL was difficult, to say the least.  I settled on Gypsy Rose by Moda.  The fabric is so gorgeous (and she loved it, too), here is a pictures but like always, it doesn’t do it justice:

I don’t have the pattern handy, but it uses 2 1/2 inch strips, so I bought a jelly roll and layer cake.  I bought the layer cake (40 10″ squares)  for extra material and I can also use it for the backing.   I’ve never worked with a jelly roll before, but I’m really excited.  The full size of the pattern calls for 46 2 1/2″ strips and the jelly roll only has 40, so I’ll have to use the layer cake or the coordinating fabrics I bought for the borders for the extra 6 strips I’ll need.

I haven’t had a chance to get started on it yet, but I hope I can sit down with it soon.  It’s going to be so gorgeous and if it’s fun, my MIL and I can keep making quilts together.  This will be something we cherish forever.

I want to do more applique! I think this collection would make beautiful appliqued flowers on a bold background, hopefully the layer cake will leave me with lots of scraps!